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IN TM^-—— "Z . V* _•«< THE STATg>
VOLUME TWO
MUMS EK SIX.
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xJL kJ X OJ X X X XX • 'Early Life, His Conversion and His Career.
MONG the great evangelists now liv
ing, none is more prominent than “Gip
sy” Smith, of England, who is now
conducting a series of meetings at the
Baptist Tabernacle. Atlanta, Georgia.
That a man should have attained the
position he now occupies, having begun
evangelistic work when a mere boy, to
tally without education, being unable to
I
II
read or write, and having never had any schooling
save that derived from his own efforts after he be
gan preaching, within itself makes a brief history
of his early life and his conversion of interest to
all who know of him and his power as an evangel
ist. Dr. G. Camplbell Morgan, of London, a great
friend of Gipsy Smith, said of him: ‘ 1 His lack of
educational advantages would have seemed likely
to bar his progress. He recognized this and set
himself to work from the first with a devotion and
earnestness which were magnificent to remedy the
defect. He has been a hard worker and hard
reader, and this has found its reward in the fact
that today he has acquired a style and delivery that
is full of force and beauty. One of our great Lon
don dailies said of him recently that he is one
the finest exponents of the possibilities of Anglo-
Saxon speech since the days of John Bright. ’ That
he should come to be thus spoken of, convinces
without any doubt of the fact that he has been pos
sessed of wonderful grace as well as determination
in meeting and overcoming obstacles.
Gipsy Smith was born March 31, 1860, in a gipsy
tent pitched by the roadside near Epping Forest in
the parish of Wanstead, England. He was the
fourth child of his parents, who were strolling gip
sies, living in a wagon on the road and in a tent
when encamped by the roadside and in the fields.
There were six children. There were two girls and
a boy, older than Gipsy, who was christened Rod
ney, and there were two girls born into the family
after Rodney. Gipsy’s parents had no worldly
goods save their horse, wagon, and such household
effects as could be carried about with them on
their movings. Gipsy’s father supported the fam
ily making baskets, clothes-pegs and all sorts of
tinware. He also recaned chairs. He followed the
custom of all gipsies, “finding” the willows for the
baskets and the wood for the pegs. Gipsies do not
buy what they can “find.” The children, of
course, had no education, no knowledge of life ex
cept that of the lanes and the hedge-row. When
Gipsy was little more than a child his mother died
of small-pox. Her death changed Gipsy’s father,
in that he was convicted of sin, and from that time
until he was converted he never ceased to seek for
the light, until finally, in a meeting in Latimer road,
he was most happily converted, together with his
brother Bartholomew. Soon thereafter, the third
brother, Woodlock, was brought to God. The three
then engaged in Christian work and continued in
it until the death of Bartholomew and Woodlock;
ATLANTA, GA., MARCH 28, 1907.
the father of Gipsy being still alive and engaged
in evangelistic work.
After the conversion of Gipsy’s father the fam
ily life and customs changed very greatly, and
nothing was “found.” Everything that the family
got was honestly paid for. Prior to this, however,
Gipsy was found in a gentleman’s plum tree by the
owner. As it is told in his Autobiography “I was
in a very happy frame of mind, when, 10, at the
foot of the tree appears the owner of the land!
lie gave me a very pressing invitation to come
down. At once I swallowed the plum in my mouth,
in case he should think I was after his plums.
He repeated his pressing invitation to come down.
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GIPSY SMITH, EVANGELIST.
“ ‘What do you want, sir?’ I asked, in the most
bland and innocent tones, as if I had never known
the taste of plums.
“ ‘lf you come down,’ he said, ‘I will tell y u
“I am not used to climbing up or climbing down,
but I had to come down because I could not stay
even up a plum tree forever, and my friend showed
no disposition to go. He said, ‘I will wait until
you are ready,’ and I did not thank him for his
courtesy. I did not make haste to come down,
neither did I do it joyfully. When I got to the
foot of the tree my friend got me by the right ear.
There was a great deal of congratulation in his
grip. He pulled me over to another tree.
’ “ ‘Do you see that tree?’ he said.
“ ‘Yes, sir.’
“ ‘Do you see that board ?
“ ‘Yes, sir?’
“ ‘Can you read it?’
“ ‘No, sir?
“ ‘Well, I will read it for you: “Whosoever is
found trespassing on this ground will be prosecuted
according to law.” ’
“Since that day 1 have never wanted anybody
Sy Arthur Xa. Ramsaur.
to explain to me what ‘whosoever’ means. This
memorable occasion fixed the meaning of the word
on my mind forever. The irate owner shook me
hard. And I tried to cry, but I could not. At last
he let me off with a caution. He threw an old boot
at me, but he forgot to take his foot out of it. But
I was quite happy for my pockets "were full of
plums.”
HIS EDUCATION.
Gipsy’s education was rather limited. It was
the desire of his father that his children should
learn to read, so he sent them occasionally to
school. He was sent to school during one winter
about six or eight weeks. He learned his letters
and very little more. He says: “The school was
at Cambridge, the seat of learning, so I am a Cam
bridge man.”
Gipsy saw the transformation that had been
worked in his father by his conversion; their home
life and the family relations had all been alteied
for the better, and he was forced to meditate upon
this fact. In the travels of the family they went
to Bedford and Gipsy heard the people speak of
John Bunyan, he went to see the church where he
had preached and spent a part of each day near his
monument, lie reflected that Bunyan had been a
tinker and a great sinner, but that he had been
converted and through his goodness had become
great. Here he first yearned for the religion that
had changed the life of Bunyan and of his own
father.
HIS CONVICTION OF SIN.
Here at Bedford began the first serious struggle
of young Gipsy to find the better life. Quoting
from his Autobiography again: “I got it into my
mind that religion was a thing which first took
hold of the head of the house, and then stepped
down in the order of ages. My head was heavy be
cause I felt that I was standing in the way of my
sister Tillie, who was younger than I. I remember
one evening sitting on the trunk of an old tree not
far from my father’s tent and wagon. Around the
fallen trunk grass had grown about as tall as my
self. I had gone there to think, because I was under
the deepest conviction and had an earnest longing
to love the Savior and to be a good lad. I thought
of my mother in Heaven, and I thought of the beau
tiful life my father, brother, and sisters were liv
ing, and I said to myself, ‘Rodney, are you going
to wander about as a gipsy boy and a gipsy man
without hope, or will you be a Christian and have
some definite object to live for?’ Everything was
still and I could almost hear the beating of ray
heart. For answer to my question, I found myself
startling myself by my own voice: ‘By the grace
of God, I will be a Christian and I will meet my
mother in Heaven.’ ”
HIS CONVERSION.
But he was not satisfied. He had secured his
own consent to give up sin, to turn in the proper
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